California’s Brown Leads Whitman Among Female Voters

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Jerry Brown, the Democrat running
for governor of California, is drawing more support from women
than Republican Meg Whitman even as a recording of an aide
calling her a “whore” hangs over their final scheduled debate.

Brown led Whitman among likely women voters 47 percent to
37 percent in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll Oct. 3, up from
a virtual tie, 45 percent-44 percent, on Sept. 20. The results
came after Whitman was accused of employing an illegal immigrant
as a housekeeper, though before the Los Angeles Times published
the “whore” recording Oct. 8.

Whitman, 54, the former EBay Inc. chief executive officer,
has spent $119 million of her own fortune, a U.S. record by a
self-funded candidate, as she battles Brown, 72, to run the
state with the most people and the biggest economy in the
nation. The two are to appear in a debate tonight moderated by
former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

“Brown supporters will stay with Brown, Whitman supporters
will be somewhat outraged and continue supporting Whitman,”
said Ann Crigler, a professor of politics at the University of
Southern California in Los Angeles.

Brown spent $10.7 million on his campaign from Jan. 1 to
Sept. 30 and had a fund balance of $22.6 million, according to
the California secretary of state’s office. Whitman spent $120.6
million in that period, with $9.2 million remaining.

‘An Insult’

The recorded slur won’t change Brown’s standing with women
voters since Brown himself didn’t say it, Crigler said in a
telephone interview.

Brown, California’s governor for two terms, from 1975 to
1983, and now attorney general, was inadvertently recorded by
voicemail after leaving a message for a Los Angeles police union
official. In a conversation about a potential advertisement over
pension issues, an aide says, “What about saying she’s a
whore?” according to the Times.

“The use of the term ‘whore’ is an insult to both Meg
Whitman and to the women of California,” Whitman spokeswoman
Sarah Pompei said in an Oct. 7 statement. “This is an appalling
and unforgivable smear.” The release of the recording prompted
an apology from the Brown campaign.

Sterling Clifford, a Brown spokesman, said the candidate
didn’t make the comment.

“As to who it was, it’s not the best recording in the
world,” Clifford said in an interview. “It’s hard to say.”

Regret Expressed

If the comment is raised at tonight’s debate at Dominican
University of California in San Rafael, he said, the campaign
has already expressed regret “and I don’t think we’ll go much
beyond that.”

Darrel Ng, a Whitman spokesman, declined to comment when
asked whether the remark would sway female voters and declined
to say whether Whitman would raise the issue.

“I certainly expect Whitman to press it hard as a way of
communicating to female voters and emphasizing her status as the
potential first female governor of California,” Jack Pitney, a
Claremont McKenna College politics professor, said in a
telephone interview. Claremont is located east of Los Angeles.

“It’s hard to say that this is going to be a decisive
issue,” Pitney said. “Voters know that politicians and
political operatives use bad language in private. That’s not a
revelation.”

‘Anti-Women Candidates’

The controversy didn’t stop the California chapter of the
National Organization for Women from endorsing Brown the day
after the tape was made public.

Patty Bellasalma, the group’s president, called Whitman one
of “the most anti-women candidates to run in California in
decades” and cited Brown’s record for hiring women.

“When you are armed with the facts and record of these two
candidates, the choice is very easy, the choice is Jerry
Brown,” Bellasalma said in a telephone interview.

Bruce Cain, a professor of politics at the University of
California, Berkeley, said Whitman may use the remark to
distance herself from her former housekeeper’s claim that
Whitman kept her on while aware that she was in the U.S.
illegally -- an issue that dominated the last debate.

Whitman accused Brown of engineering the housekeeper’s
Sept. 29 news conference as a political stunt. She said she
dismissed Nicky Diaz Santillan immediately after the woman
admitted falsifying immigration documents.

“I’m sure she’ll ask for an apology or something,” Cain
said. Still, the aide’s remark isn’t likely to gain as much
traction as the immigration flap, he said.

“There’s so much going wrong in California right now, it
doesn’t really tie into the pressing issues,” Cain said. “The
undocumented issue ties into a major issue, which is: What are
we going to do about immigration reform? I’m not sure how you
tie this one in, in a way that helps Meg Whitman.”